Month: July 2025

The Great Risk Shift 2.0

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The rollbacks to social safety nets in H.R. 1 are just the latest effort in a 50-year campaign to shift financial risk from big institutions and monied interests onto ordinary households.

This post has been republished from Professor Patricia McCoy’s Substack. Her new book, “Sharing Risk: The Path to Economic Well-Being for All,” is available from The University of California Press.

Today, the typical family is worse off economically than it was in the 1960s, due to a concerted campaign by businesses and governments to dump their financial risks onto breadwinners and their families. This column examines how H.R. 1 continues that campaign while undermining some of the newer social safety nets established in recent years.

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Empathy: The driving force of entrepreneurship

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For people facing long odds, an entrepreneurial mind-set matters

This post was originally published in the Boston Business Journal. Authors & Innovators is a regular column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, BC Law adjunct professor and founder of Project Entrepreneur, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.

About 77 million Americans have a criminal record. Experts expect that number to be 100 million by 2030. For the estimated 600,000 people returning home from incarceration annually, a criminal record creates substantial barriers to obtaining housing, employment, government benefits and continuing education, due to myriad federal and state restrictions. Getting an ID and finding a job — any job — are immediate priorities. No surprise that recidivism rates for returning citizens range from 29% to 59%, depending on the state.

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Overcoming the Comparison Trap of 1L

/ Ian Hurley / Leave a comment

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” – Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

It was the night before my first final as a 1L, and I was starting to feel overwhelmed. I knew, in a sort of intangible way, that an entire semester’s worth of work would come down to one test. And I could not help but be aware of the fact that this would prove stressful; everyone I knew who went to law school told me as much, as did most of my current peers. I suppose it’s also self-evident when you see the syllabus and read the words “your entire course grade will rest on the final examination” that you will have to perform on the day or pay the price.

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The Curious Email From Social Security

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A July 4 email from the Social Security Administration claimed that Congress had eliminated federal income taxes on Social Security benefits, when it had not

This post has been republished from Professor Patricia McCoy’s Substack. Her new book, “Sharing Risk: The Path to Economic Well-Being for All,” is available from The University of California Press.

During last year’s presidential race, President Trump declared: “Seniors should not pay taxes on Social Security and they won’t,” according to CBS News. This promise to end income taxes on Social Security benefits was the single most popular economic proposal of either candidate, according to an ABC News/Ipsos Poll conducted about a month before the election. In fact, voters were so enthralled with his idea that 85% of people polled approved.

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How to Cut Health Benefits and Dis a Majority of Voters in the Process

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New Medicaid red tape and the loss of expanded Obamacare subsidies stand to hurt 93 million households

This post has been republished from Professor Patricia McCoy’s Substack. Her new book, “Sharing Risk: The Path to Economic Well-Being for All,” is available from The University of California Press.

In 2033, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance In H.R. 1, passed on July 4, Congress saddled Medicaid participants with new red tape, while allowing expanded subsidies for Obamacare premiums to lapse at the end of this year. When those changes take effect, they will affect all Medicaid participants (71 million at last count) and 92% of Obamacare policyholders (another 22 million). Together, this is far more than half of the number of people who voted in the latest Presidential election and suggests that the Republican majority in Congress will alienate voters.

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Surprise! USF Decision Signals Admin Law Revolution, But Not the One We Expected

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This guest post by BC Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Lyons first appeared in the AEIdeas Blog.

Late last month, the Supreme Court decided FCC v. Consumers Research. Although an undercard among the Court’s last-day decisions, the case was closely watched in administrative law circles as a potential vehicle for revitalizing the moribund Nondelegation Doctrine. But as predicted after oral argument, the Court found this was not the right case to do so. The big surprise was Justice Kavanaugh’s concurrence, which likely killed future efforts to reform nondelegation, but also signaled big news ahead for the law governing independent agencies.

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Holy Selfishness & The Gift-Giving Virtue: A Cycle of Overcoming

/ Staniel Brutis / Leave a comment

“All wish to possess great knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price.”
– Juvenal

  1. HOLY SELFISHNESS

In this article, I offer a perspective aimed at advancing the individual student while uplifting the collective student body. I accomplish this by advocating for the simple act of sharing knowledge. The principles used within this article derive from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

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My Summer at Legal Aid: Issue Spotting and Research

/ Samantha Torre / Leave a comment

This summer, I’m interning at the Legal Aid Society of San Diego, a nonprofit organization that seeks to assist San Diego County residents and provide free legal representation, advice, and information. As the right to an attorney does not exist in legal cases, many litigants have to navigate complicated processes and forms, which can make it much more difficult for them to achieve their desired result in a case than parties with an attorney. The LASSD seeks to bridge that gap. The goal of the self-help clinics is not to provide representation, but to make the civil legal system more accessible for litigants.

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